The Houzin' Project

Words, Art and Resources on Eviction, Displacement and Houselessness

Tuesday, March 4, 2003;

Published by POOR Press 2003 ©

Excerpt from The Houzin Project Introduction....

In the Houzin Project , youth, adult and elder poverty scholars from the Bay Area and beyond, through first-person narratives, community journalism, poetryjournalism and visual art have linked the "causes" i.e.; gentrification, displacement, racism and redlining with the "effects"i.e.; eviction, houselessness and the criminalization/corporatization of poverty. These linkages are rarely made when the issue of Homelessness is bandied about by mainstream media, legislators and even the majority of formally educated, institutionally recognized, "scholars" who are asked to speak, write or theorize on the issue of poverty and homelessness.

In the Houzin Project we attempt to strip away the myths of homelessness’s origin, ie, to link the causes of modern day Colonialism (displacement) with its effects. To accomplish this we begin by exploring The Diasporas or what we call the Original Evictions of native peoples, indigenous peoples, poor women and children, poor elders and youth, working-class and communities of color from their land and their neighborhoods.

We examine the role of the artist as default gentrifyer, paving the way for some of the most focused and concentrated gentrification or “clean -up” efforts, such as Venice, California, Oakland and New York, which, after the redevelopment road is paved by the artist, in marches the real estate developers and anti-poor people mayors like Jerry Brown (Oakland) and John Gonzalez (San Jose) and then suddenly , as if by magic, “crime” rise in these areas, or more simply, the media coverage, police reporting and profiling of crime rises. As well, we look at how the economic oppression of communities of color happens through racial and classist banking policies like the redlining of the Bayview Hunters Point district of San Francisco, and how those covert and overt policies lead to economic desta bilization and houselessness of poor folks......

My Tio lived down the block
Until The Strangers came
My Auntie lived upstairs
Until The Strangers came
I lived in my house all my life
Until The Strangers Came
And then we didn’t live
Anywhere

an excerpt from My Friends Lived Next Door - a poem by Lydia, 14, Gentrification survivor in The Houzin Project